CurrencyShares Singapore Dollar Trust (FXSG) Rolls Out

ETF Database

Feb. 14, 2013, 4:00 AM

The bull train continues full steam ahead as major equity indexes have enticed buyers after every minor pullback over the last month. The optimistic price action on Wall Street is undeniable, and it truly showcases the sheer eagerness among investor looking for their share of the action. Even in the face of lackluster economic data, stocks have remained resilient, which has started to raise some concerns. January retail sales data came in at 0.1%, failing to beat last month's reading of 0.5%, and surprisingly this wasn't enough to inspire serious profit-taking pressures during yesterday's trading session [see also 7 Rules ETF Day Traders Must Know].

Amid the tug-of-war on Wall Street, Guggenheim beefed up their lineup of currency ETFs with the launch of the CurrencyShares Singapore Dollar Trust (FXSG) on Wednesday, February 13. This first-to-market product offers exposure to the Singapore Dollar as tracked by the SGD/USD exchange rate, which measures the relative value of the Singapore and the U.S. dollar [see also How To Invest Overseas Without Currency Risk].

The new fund comes with a 0.40% price tag, which falls in line with the management fees charged by the existing CurrencyShares ETFs, including:

Similar to the other CurrencyShares products, FXSG is structured as a Grantor Trust; this ETF holds actual notes of currency, unlike other currency ETPs like WisdomTree's Emerging Currency Fund (CEW, A-), which relies on short-term fixed-income securities and currency forwards to accomplish its objective [see King Dollar ETFdb Portfolio].

Ways to Play Singapore

FXSG's launch marks yet another stride forward in the democratization of the global investment landscape, as investors can now easily tap into a currency that was previously impossible to access without a more sophisticated brokerage account. Investors now have one more way to gain exposure to Singapore's economy. Previously, investors could only tap into this country via equity exposure:

Alternatively, investors can also opt for one of several dozen funds that offer some degree of exposure to Singapore; looking at the Free ETF Country Exposure Tool we see that ASEA and DVYA both maintain major allocations to Singapore without being entirely devoted to this market.